A team of pharmacists and pharmacy students from Monash University and the United States have collaborated to highlight the role of pharmacists in reducing healthcare-associated waste, greenhouse emissions and other environmental impacts.
The paper, published in the Journal of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, comes as the global roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines accelerates around the world. While this offers great hope in our ability to tackle the virus, the pandemic has also shown us that not everyone in the world has the same opportunities for health, including access to vaccination. In fact, the less waste we produce locally, the more vaccine is potentially available to share with less well-resourced communities.
“We need to look beyond the immediate threat of the pandemic to mitigate the emerging health problems related to global environmental change,” said Catherine Forrester, pharmacist and Teaching Associate at Monash University’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“Pharmaceuticals account for a significant portion of health care system contributions to greenhouse gas and waste production, and can end up in waterways. Pharmacists are well-positioned to reduce these impacts through the critical roles they already play in ensuring the quality use of medicines, and avoiding ineffective or unnecessary treatments. But we also need to look at what we can do beyond this.”
The authors recognise that gaps in knowledge exist about the environmental impacts of medicines and how to balance these against their health benefits, and argue that this strengthens the case
